Carols amid Confusion

Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4 this morning (27 December) focused on confused people and the memories that held significance for them. A person with dementia might, for instance, remember carols and be able to sing them clearly when all else was confusion.

The Bishop of Leeds made, in passing, the point that it is a real loss when youngsters grow up without much knowledge of traditional carols. I'm sure he is right. All that is served up to the rising generation is a handful of carols popular in schools and shopping precincts. Many of these will be purely secular. Not much meaty content there to latch on to.

This sparked off in me a whole chain of thoughts. My mother once spoke of a dramatic experience in her 1930’s nursing days. One night a young man was seen pacing up and down a ward singing hymns at the top of his voice. He had no known church associations. By the morning that young man had died. Hymns - dragged up from somewhere in the recesses of his mind - came to the fore as his life systems began to shut down.

I personally remember a terminally ill man, who had become very anti-church and a long-time non-attender, asking for a hymn book he could sing from in his side ward. He explained how it was a comfort to him.

A number of Scottish people have told how they left church after their Sunday School days. During that time they had been trained in the Church of Scotland’s beliefs. These beliefs came back to them in times of crisis and were a comfort and a help.

And then there are the sobering examples of people clinging to much darker and less healthy influences in their closing days. A well-meaning but surely misguided lady told us of her experience visiting in a hospital ward for men. She noticed that the eyes of one elderly man lit up with recognition when a swear word was used. She saw how this wretched expletive helped him to concentrate. Thinking she was being helpful, she went round to other men on the ward and encouraged them to voice the same word. It had the same effect on them!

Even the most well brought up people can suddenly come out with bad language when in the throes of dementia. This causes great distress to friends and relatives who have never heard them use these expletives before.

In my view, swear words have demonic power and should be avoided like the plague. Hymns, on the other hand, can build us up and benefit us. So can verses of scripture. A number of famous people have died with some such words as

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”

(Acts 7:59 - the dying words of Stephen, the first Christian martyr) on their lips. Rev Charles Wesley passed away quoting, “I shall be satisfied with thy likeness”:

“As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

I have no control over what words I may babble if and when I come to that stage in my life. All I know is that I hope what I come out with will be hymns or Bible verses and not swear words.